[Illustration]
Whither, midst falling dew,
While glow the heavens with the last steps of day,
Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue
Thy solitary way?
Vainly the fowler’s eye
Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong,
As, darkly painted on the crimson sky,
Thy figure floats along.
Seek’st thou the plashy brink
Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide,
Or where the rocking billows rise and sink
On the chafed ocean side?
There is a Power whose care
Teaches thy way along that pathless coast,--
The desert and illimitable air,--
Lone wandering, but not lost.
All day thy wings have fanned,
At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere;
Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land,
Though the dark night is near.
And soon that toil shall end;
Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest,
And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend
Soon o’er thy sheltered nest.
Thou’rt gone; the abyss of heaven
Hath swallowed up thy form; yet on my heart
Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given,
And shall not soon depart:
He, who from zone to zone,
Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,
In the long way that I must tread alone,
Will lead my steps aright.
_Phrase Exercise._
1. _Glow_ the heavens.--2. The last steps of day.--3. Rosy
depths.--4. Pursue thy solitary way.--5. Might _mark_ thy
_distant flight_.--6. Darkly painted.--7. Plashy brink.--8.
_Marge_ of river.--9. Rocking billows.--10. _Chafed_
side.--11. Pathless coast.--12. The _desert_ and _illimitable_
air.--13. Lone wandering.--14. Thy wings have _fanned the
atmosphere_.--15. _Welcome_ land.--16. _Sheltered_ nest.--17.
The _abyss_ of heaven.--18. _Boundless_ sky.--19. Certain
flight.